In the UNIX and Linux environments, a system information file is used to store data source information. Setup installs a default version of this file, called odbc.ini, in the product installation directory (see ODBCINI for details about relocating and renaming this file). It is a plain text file that contains data source definitions.

To configure a data source manually, you edit the odbc.ini file with a text editor. The content of this file is divided into three sections.

At the beginning of the file is a section named [ODBC Data Sources] containing data_source_name=installed-driver pairs, for example:

Sybase Wire Protocol=DataDirect Sybase Wire Protocol.

The driver uses this section to match a data source to the appropriate installed driver.

The [ODBC Data Sources] section also includes data source definitions. The default odbc.ini contains a data source definition for each driver. Each data source definition begins with a data source name in square brackets, for example, [Sybase Wire Protocol 2]. The data source definitions contain connection string attribute=value pairs with default values. You can modify these values as appropriate for your system. Descriptions of these attributes are in each individual driver chapter. See Sample Default odbc.ini File for sample data sources.

The second section of the file is named [ODBC File DSN] and includes one keyword:

[ODBC File DSN]
DefaultDSNDir=

This keyword defines the path of the default location for file data sources (see File Data Sources).

The third section of the file is named [ODBC] and includes several keywords, for example:

[ODBC]
IANAAppCodePage=4
InstallDir=/opt/odbc
Trace=0
TraceFile=odbctrace.out
TraceDll=/opt/odbc/lib/ivtrc27.so
ODBCTraceMaxFileSize=102400
ODBCTraceMaxNumFiles=10

The IANAAppCodePage keyword defines the default value that all UNIX/Linux drivers use if individual data sources have not specified a different value. The default value is 4.

See the individual driver chapters, and refer to Code page values in the Progress DataDirect for ODBC Drivers Reference for details.

The InstallDir keyword must be included in this section. The value of this keyword is the path to the installation directory under which the /lib and /locale directories are contained. The installation process automatically writes your installation directory to the default odbc.ini file.

For example, if you choose an installation location of /opt/odbc, then the following line is written to the [ODBC] section of the default odbc.ini:

InstallDir=/opt/odbc

ODBC tracing allows you to trace calls to ODBC drivers and create a log of the traces for troubleshooting purposes. The following keywords all control tracing: Trace, TraceFile, TraceDLL, ODBCTraceMaxFileSize, and ODBCTraceMaxNumFiles.

For a complete discussion of tracing, refer to ODBC trace in the Progress DataDirect for ODBC Drivers Reference.